


Yeast: A love story of micro proportions

by spacehap



Category: Yeast
Genre: Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 04:45:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/961713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacehap/pseuds/spacehap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humanity domesticates Yeast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yeast: A love story of micro proportions

It was over 5000 years ago when it began. It was a warm day, probably about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a light breeze was blowing. If you could see at a microscopic level, it would have looked like a dust storm as microbial matter floated past. Humanity had just finished cleaning around the homestead and started preparing dinner. Mashed up grains with a bit of water added, like usual.

After mashing the grains however, Humanity was distracted by a shiny thing and left its bowl of grains on a stump while it investigated. Left unguarded, the mashed grains began to accumulate microbes. From the heavens descended species after species of microbial matter. Among these migrating organisms was a hopeful spore named “Yeast.”

Yeast had long since fed upon wild food sources. If it had sugar, Yeast would colonize and eat it. Berries, certain types of bark, ripened fruit; they were all favorites of Yeast. Now here, in this bowl, were humongous amounts of starchy sugars just begging to be devoured. And thus Yeast began to multiply inside the container and ferment the soupy, pulverized grains.

Transformed by the yeast cell’s inner workings, the glucose and sucrose in the mushed grains became carbon dioxide and alcohol. When Humanity came back, the flat mush it had left was changed into a lump of risen dough. Humanity, not one to waste food in such trying times, put the dough over the fire to cook. Lo and behold, the resulting bread was not like Humanity’s previous meals. No, this was fluffy and airy from the carbon dioxide. Changed by the alcohol, the taste was different as well!  
It was this revolutionary concoction that led Humanity to leave its mashed grains out for a bit before cooking. Eventually it occurred to Humanity to save part of the dough to kick start future batches of dough, thus saving many yeast cells from death in the cooking fires. Humanity and Yeast had officially entered a relationship.  
Over the next few hundred years, Humanity set about changing Yeast through tender, loving care. Slowly Yeast learned to live a domestic lifestyle. Yeast sometimes looked back on its time in the wild, but ultimately Yeast liked living with Humanity. The constant supply of food always made it happy. Anyway, Yeast still had cousins living in the wild. Finally, after many centuries of work, Humanity officially declared Yeast domesticated. That was a time of great pride for Yeast, being domesticated before stupid cows or dogs. Yeast would always be Humanity’s first love.

Around 3000 B.C.E., the food and drink that Yeast would make for Humanity started appearing in Humanity’s paintings. Yeast really had come a long way, it had even started specializing the bread and drinks that it made so that they tasted unique. 

Humanity and Yeast lived a happy life together, though there were occasional tiffs. Sometimes Yeast, which was always present in Humanity’s digestive system, would let things get out of hand and start over-reproducing. That would cause Humanity a lot of worry, pain, and inconvenience, but usually it would blow over. These sporadic fights never lessened Humanity’s love of Yeast; it was just Yeast’s nature to do such things.

Now-a-days Yeast is involved with a myriad of activities. Often times it helps scientist make new advances in fields such as biology, medicine, and genetics. Industrial production is a current hobby of Yeast as well, especially the production of Ethanol. When there’s time, Yeast will even help improve Humanity’s digestive health with pro-biotic supplements. In the end though, Yeast never fails to make Humanity some bread and beer for dinner.

“Oh Yeast, I love you.” Humanity sighs, bringing a roll of bread to its lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Bibliography
> 
> The University of Arizona (2007). Fermentation of Sugar in Bread by Yeast. Retrieved September 9, 2013, from http://blowers.chee.arizona.edu/cooking/kinetics/bread.html.
> 
> Center for Disease Control (March 25, 2013). Genital / Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (VVC). Retrieved September 9, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/fungal/Candidiasis/genital/.
> 
> History of Yeast. Retrieved September 9, 2013, from http://www.dakotayeast.com/yeast_history.html.
> 
> Alba-Lois, L., Segal-Kischinevzky, C. (2010). Yeast Fermentation and the Making of Beer and Wine. Retrieved September 9, 2013, from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/yeast-fermentation-and-the-making-of-beer-14372813.
> 
> Olver, L. (September 7, 2013). The Food Timeline: history notes -- bread. Retrieved September 9, 2013, from www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html.


End file.
